I attended the State’s public input meeting yesterday on the draft 2019 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) application. Before the meeting, the State received written comments to the first draft of the proposed 2019 LIHTC application. They provided this handout in response to the comments and adjusted the draft.

Participants and State staff had a healthy discussion about some of the criteria, and its effect on the wallet. The State asked for solutions, agreed to look further into a few items, and, will re-open the public online bulletin board for interested parties to review and comment on the proposed final draft.

Proposed changes include:

Creating a Choice Neighborhood Initiative Set-Aside at $1M per round for 3-years.

Add a Waiver of Qualified Contract Certification.

Requiring Fair Housing Training every 3-years with one person from each representing the Developer, Architectural firm and General Contractor. The Management Company must have two individuals. Currently, the draft has an exclusive list of trainers. OHFA is willing to consider other training that meets the same standard.

Applying negative points to future applications when awardees request changes to amenities and energy efficiency certifications. Public discussion on this topic explained changes are needed after they begin engineering and construction of the development. A blanket certification to meet the required and optional items on the list at application, and if the project does not reach the points once completed, then use a negative point system.

Inserting Subsidy per unit criteria applied to developments as a rating factor to avoid tie-breaker.

Adding the maximum per square foot cost of $180. The average price per square foot was set using the average from the last two years, which was less than $150.

Re-syndication applications are not allowed to use income averaging. The state agreed to review the code to verify the applicability of the existing LURA requirements to the re-syndication.

A distinction between family and senior developments for the prior 2-year award.

Public Comment:

Examine the population growth percentage to account for larger cities with populations of 25,000+ and adjust the factor for towns under 2,500. Reduce the three-year threshold to 1.5% for larger cities.